You Need To Listen

I have put some thought into this for a while now. The US Government is running at a huge deficit. I think it is about time for some major reform. This is going to sound extreme but give it some serious thought and then comment accordingly.

Step number one: Eliminate parties. Get rid of the Republican and Democratic parties all together. This is one of the biggest problems with our government today. Our government officials are literally afraid to vote against their party lines. This takes all the logical thought process out of the decisions they make. It also hinders them when it comes to making new laws. They will never submit a new law that is against their party even if it makes sense to them. So how does one go about eliminating the parties? I will get into that later in this post.

Step number two: Change the amount of representation. Currently the Senate has two representatives from each state with salaries of $174,000 per year each and the Senate majority and minority leaders each earn $193,000 per year. So if we do the math $174,000*48= $8,352,000 and $193,000*2= $386,000. $8,352,000 + $386,000 = $8,738,000. That is just for the current senators that are in office. I am not going to go into the 400+ members of congress that are receiving retirement benefits.

The House of Representatives currently have 435 representatives with salaries of $174,000 per year each and the House majority and minority leaders each earn $193,000 and the Speaker of the House earns $223,500 per year. If we do the math on the House, 432*$174,000 = $75,168,000 and 2*$193,000 = $386,000. $75,168,000 + $386,000 + $223,500 = $75,777,500 per year for the Representatives’ salaries.

Combine the Senate and House salaries and we are paying a total of $84,515,500 in salaries annually. That does not include insurance and other benefits we are paying for.

I propose we have a representative from each state in the Senate and one representative from each state in the House. That would make 50 Senators and 50 members of the House. $7,830,000 per year for regular members, $772,000 for majority and minority leaders and $223,500 per year for the Speaker of the house would total $17,525,500 in salaries for both the House and Senate. With this change we would save a total of $75,690,000 per year plus the other benefits we are paying for.

Step number three: Eliminate campaign financing. To do this we require candidates set up a website, which all do now anyway, to provide the public with the information relevant to their candidacy. Require local television stations to broadcast regularly televised information in regards to the top two candidates provided by the top two candidates as determined by a primary of all candidates running. This eliminates the need for the funding of commercials and other campaign promotions and puts everyone on a level playing field by giving each candidate an equal amount of promotional time.

While in office all members of the House and Senate would have their all their accounts monitored and audited by an authority to confirm there is no outside monies received to influence their decisions.

This in sense is how we eliminate the parties. If they are not allowed to finance a member of the House or Senate they have no influence on the member.

While this is a pie in the sky idea, I think it would be good for our nation. Our elected officials would be judged on their actions not the actions of their party. This is not likely to happen anytime soon simply because 435 individuals would have to vote to eliminate their positions.

Take a moment and let me know your thoughts on this topic. There are obviously many questions that may be raised by this post but I think it is a good discussion starting point.